Annular key collecting device

ABSTRACT

The key collecting device comprises an upper and a lower housing each having a central base portion extending radially outwardly to form spaced spokes mutually opposite to the corresponding ones of themselves, every two of the spaced spokes opposite to each other form an operation space with the other two. The spokes have pairs of mutually opposite curved recesses mutually connected to form clamping channels for an annular ring with a notch. These housings further have a pair of mutually opposite recesses communicating with a corresponding one of the curved recesses for placing therein a slide-controlling member to be moved from outside to control closing and opening of the annular ring being movably positioned between these housings and controlled to rotate and moved into the interior of a pair of the spaced spokes opposite to each other, or to an operation space between two pairs of the mutually opposite spaced spokes. The device is more convenient for operation and its strength is increased when the annular ring is positioned.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention is related to an annular key collecting device,and especially to an annular key collecting device making a largeroperation space for mounting and detaching keys as well as increasingthe entire structural strength of the annular key collecting device.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Key collecting rings with two circles each made in the early stages aredifficult and inconvenient in putting in and taking out keys; as aresult, the key collecting devices used nowadays are mostly in theshapes of disks. Such a disk-like key collecting device basically isprovided with an external peripheral groove in which at a specificposition there is provided an access for keys in communication with theexternal peripheral groove, the access for keys can be controlled forclosing or opening with a slide pin provided. By the fact that theaccess for keys is quite narrow, it is inconvenient generally for afinger to do a rather delicate handling action.

Thereby, some key collecting device has a rotatable ring mounted on thetop end of the main body thereof, the ring is provided with a notch asan access hole for keys. The notch of the ring is moved by rotating intothe main body normally to form a closing state, and can be exposed byrotating outwardly for putting in or taking out keys. However, the ringof quite a diameter and with an empty inner space extends out of themain body of the key collecting device quite roughly, this not onlyaffects the entire esthetic appearance of the product, but also issubjected to damage by inadvertent collision.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The object of the present invention is to provide an annular keycollecting device having an annular ring of a predetermined diameter,the ring is provided with a notch as an access for keys, and ispositioned in a plurality of spaced curved recesses formed on an upperhousing and a lower housing opposite to each other. A slide-controllingmember is provided in the upper and the lower housings and has a frontend at least having a width in coincident with that of the notch of thering, the slide-controlling member normally latches the notch of thering, and can contract to set the notch of the ring free by a force. Ina preferred embodiment, the upper and the lower housings have aplurality of spaced spokes for movably clamping the annular ring, everytwo of the spaced spokes opposite to each other form a space foroperation with the other two of the spaced spokes opposite to each otherwhen the notch of the ring is exposed by rotating.

The present invention will be apparent after reading the detaileddescription of the preferred embodiments thereof in reference to theaccompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 2 is an analytic perspective view showing the elements of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the main structure of the presentinvention on the rear side of that shown in FIG. 1 with an upper housingdetached;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing assembling and disassembling of thepresent invention as shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a schematic perspective view showing a plurality of keys putin the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring to FIGS. 1-3, in the preferred embodiment shown, the presentinvention has an upper housing 10 and a lower housing 20 each with acentral base portion 11 (21). The central base portions 11, 21 extendradially outwardly to form a plurality of spaced spokes 12, 13, 14 and22, 23, 24 mutually opposite to the corresponding ones of themselves.These spaced spokes 12, 13, 14 and 22, 23, 24 are provided near theouter edges thereof with pairs of curved recesses 15, 25 mutuallyopposite to form clamping channels with a round sectional area for eachpair.

The base portions 11, 21, the mutually opposite spaced spokes 12, 13, 14and 22, 23, 24, the pairs of curved recesses 15, 25 and the structurestated below for assembling a slide-controlling member 29 of the upperand lower housings 10, 20 can all be integrally shaped. And for theconvenience of manufacturing and assembling, in the preferred embodimentshown, the upper housing 10 is provided on the base portion 11 thereofwith a hole 16, while the lower housing 20 is provided on acorresponding position to the hole 16 with a hollow stub 26, so that theupper and lower housings 10, 20 can be connected integrally by pressingthe hollow stub 26 into the hole 16.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the upper and lower housings 10, 20 can beprovided with a pair of mutually opposite recesses 17, 27 incommunication with a corresponding one of the curved recesses 25; therecess 27 has near the inner end thereof a window 28 in communicationwith the surface of the lower housing 20. The slide-controlling member29 is in the shape in coincident with that of the whole of the mutuallyopposite recesses 17, 27 but a little shorter, a moving button 291provided on the surface thereof can be mounted in the window 28 andprotrudes from the surface of the lower housing 20 in favor of movingthe entire slide-controlling member 29. The slide-controlling member 29is provided normally to be able of extending to a position incommunication with the curved recess 25 by means of an elastic element,or to be able of contracting to get rid of the curved recess 25 when theslide-controlling member 29 is moved externally. In the embodimentshown, the elastic element is a coil spring 292, it can be placed in arecessed chamber 293 near the tailing end of the slide-controllingmember 29 to make one end of the coil spring 292 abut against the innerend 294 of the recessed chamber 293 and the other end press against aninner end 271 of the whole of the mutually opposite recesses 17, 27; thecoil spring 292 thereby normally is compressed to push theslide-controlling member 29.

An annular ring 30 is provided, it has a diameter in coincident withthat of the clamping channels formed by connecting of the pairs ofmutually opposite curved recesses 15, 25, while the diameter of thesectional area of the ring is a little bit smaller than that of aclamping channel formed by connecting of a pair of curved recesses 15,25. The annular ring 30 with a notch 31 thereby can be movablypositioned in the clamping channels formed by connecting of the pairs ofmutually opposite curved recesses 15, 25.

When the annular ring 30 is rotated by a force into the space betweentwo pairs of mutually opposite spaced spokes 12, 22, and a front end 295of the slide-controlling member 29 is stretched elastically into thenotch 31 (referring to FIG. 3), the annular ring 30 is in a normalclosing state. On the contrary, when the exposed moving button 291 makescontracting of the slide-controlling member 29 (referring to FIG. 4),the notch 31 of the annular ring 30 is rotated into a none-blockingoperation space between the two pairs of mutually opposite spaced spokes12, 22. Thereby, the notch 31 is in the completely opened state, and akey 90 can be placed in or taken out of the notch 31. After mounting orremoving of the key 90, the annular ring 30 is rotated again to theabove stated closing position. The front end 295 of theslide-controlling member 29 can be an inclined portion with a smallerwidth in favor of elastic stretching of the slide-controlling member 29into the notch 31 when the annular ring 30 is rotated in.

As shown in FIG. 5, the present invention can have a none-blockingoperation space between every two pairs of mutually opposite spacedspokes for collecting and tidying keys of various types.

The improved structure of the present invention stated above can beeasier and more convenient for use by virtue that the space foroperation after rotating the notch of the annular ring out for mountingand detaching keys is enlarged. And the annular ring with the emptyinner space is movably clamped on a plurality of spaced spokes, itsstructural strength thus is increased and can effectively preventoccurrence of damage because of accidental collision; the annular ringof a larger diameter is integral with the main body of the presentinvention, thereby the present invention has a more ideal entireesthetic appearance.

The embodiments described are only for illustrating the presentinvention, and not for giving any limitation to the scope of the presentinvention. It will be apparent to those skilled in this art that variousmodifications or changes made to the elements of the present inventionwithout departing from the spirit of it shall fall within the scope ofthe appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. An annular key collecting device comprising: a)an upper housing having: i) a first circular base portion; ii) aplurality of circumferentially spaced apart upper spokes extendingoutwardly from the first circular base portion, each of the plurality ofspaced apart upper spokes having a curved upper recess; and iii) a firstslide member recess communicating with the curved upper recess of one ofthe plurality of spaced apart upper spokes; b) a lower housing having:i) a second circular base portion connected to the first circular baseportion; ii) a plurality of circumferentially spaced apart lower spokesextending outwardly from the second circular base portion, each of theplurality of spaced apart lower spokes having a curved lower recess, thecurved lower recess of each of the plurality of spaced apart lowerspokes matching and aligning with one curved upper recess of theplurality of spaced apart upper spokes to form a clamping channel; andiii) a second slide member recess communicating with the curved lowerrecess of one of the plurality of spaced apart lower spokes and aligningwith the first slide member recess; c) an annular ring movably insertedinto the clamping channel and having a notch therein; and d) aslide-controlling member slidably located in the first and the secondslide member recesses, wherein the slide-controlling member is movablebetween a locked position and an unlocked position, whereby, in thelocked position, a front end of the slide-controlling member is locatedin the clamping channel so as to engage the notch in the annular ring torestrict movement of the annular ring, and, in the unlocked position,the front end of the slide-controlling member is moved out of theclamping channel and the notch in the annular ring allowing movement ofthe annular ring relative to the upper and lower housings.
 2. Theannular key collecting device according to claim 1, further comprising aresilient member located in a recessed chamber of the slide-controllingmember, wherein the resilient member presses against an inner end of theslide-controlling member at a first end, and inner ends of the first andsecond slide member recesses.
 3. The annular key collecting deviceaccording to claim 2, wherein the resilient member is a spring.
 4. Theannular key collecting device according to claim 1, wherein theslide-controlling member includes a moving button, one of the firstcircular base portion and the second circular base portion includes awindow, the moving button extending through the window and so as to bemoveable between the locked and the unlocked positions, from exteriorlyof the key collecting device.
 5. The annular key collecting deviceaccording to claim 1, wherein each curved upper recess is located on anend of each of the plurality of spaced apart upper spokes opposite thefirst circular base portion, and each curved lower recess is located onan end of each of the plurality of spaced apart lower spokes oppositethe second circular base portion.
 6. The annular key collecting deviceaccording to claim 1, wherein the first circular base portion includesat least one hole, the second circular base portion includes at leastone stub, such that the upper circular housing is connected to the lowercircular housing by inserting the at least one stub into the at leastone hole.